Eljon vs. The Stroke! I survived an ischemic stroke caused by a ruptured vessel in my neck at 29 years old. I have emerged strong! Recovery is ongoing though so I'll be updating daily on progress and stroke news so please keep reading!

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Sure, Get That Botox!

So I was just thinking about strokies who have been left with weakened or stiffened limbs and muscles and wondered what else would help them besides physical therapy. My friends and I always joke about needing botox now that we've entered out 30s and how we look like we're in our 90s. As a joke, I was going to put together this whole spiel about botox and came across an article about the wrinkle smoother and stroke victims. Apparently botox Type A is usd for helping strokies with their atrophied limbs. It allegedly helps improve patient's mobility helps muscles relax. Wow! That is awesome!

It is NOT approved by the Food and Drug Administration for this use but it is so widely accepted that Medicare and other insurers are reimbursing patients for its use. I'm not sure what doctors practice this but apparently this isn't news. I'm finding articles on botox and stroke from 2002! All the articles seem positive regarding treatment for spasticity due to stroke.

5 comments:

I am an almost(in 2 days) 11 year survivor. have a lot of spasticity. I believe Botox has become approved recently for upper limbs in stroke patients. I have had several rounds of it. with some temporary good results. the cost(even with insurance) is what stops me from continuing treatment. there are many people that swear by it.

This use f botox will definitely get FDA approval because seems like it already does miracles. I'm so glad when I hear about such cases because I always compared Botox with a miracle and every day more and more arguments prove my point.

Even if I had just a little sweating problem, the botox Toronto treatment I had made it disappear for at least 4-5 months. I felt great after a few days from the procedure and now I'm looking forward for the next one I'll have in December.

Today I'm a 3 year stroke survivor. I'm from Holland and lots of stuff is covered by insurance here. I've had botox in my lower leg, but unfortunately I had a neurologist first who put in the wrong muscles, so I just lost strength and didn't improve, but last December I finally had a doctor who injected it into the right muscles. My foot was much more relaxed. I'll probably have it again a few months from now. In my case it's getting worse when I'm stressed. I can't imagine having to recover in a crazy city like New York! I live in a town, but when I'm out in the street and a car drives by, it's a real event to me. I also feel very selfconscious when people are looking at me when I'm trying to walk. Before I had a stroke I looked good, I always wore tight dresses and high heels and had long blond hair with hairextensions. I can't live up to that carefully created image right now and often I'm so ashamed about the way I look now. I'm sabotaging myself like that.

Botox just relaxes your muscles more and gives you a timeframe to exercise your muscles and brain again. And you have to find someone who knows what he/she is doing, otherwise it will backfire.

Never sabatoge yourself! Even though there is a new you right now, embrace it, work those extensions again! I know easier said than done. When I was in the early stages of my recovery, I went through a stage where I didn't feel like my face was my own. I hated looking in the mirror, couldn't bear that image. Slowly embracing the new me was hard but necessary. Ignore people who look at you or just smile at them or look right into their eyes. You're a survivor! Start out with little things even if it's getting your nails done or wearing lip gloss, baby steps.

Sometimes when I get very tired, my speech slurs. I find that if I don't concentrate and relax myself, it tends to do that. Sending you good thoughts. So glad Holland covers so many treatments for stroke. The US needs to take note!